When was Robert Goulet in DREAMGIRLS?

[morosco]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 1:58pm

There's an "Oops" in the article:
Broadway World

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 1:59pm

Didn't you see him play Curtis at the Maybelline Playhouse in Sarasota Florida?

[baddadnpa]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:00pm

Actually I thought he was Effie.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:01pm

No no Effie was played by Barbara Mandrell. That was the whole concept -- THE MANDRELL SISTERS ARE THE DREAMS.

[baddadnpa]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:06pm

Oh, my mistake. Thank you for the correction.

[uncageg]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:12pm

Got me a Cadillac, Cadillac, Cadillac

[WOSQ]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:24pm

Don't let's be bitchy about Bob.

He covered Deena Jones for the entire Broadway run and went on about 12 times....

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:28pm

Please people, it's fun to make bitchy "What if" jokes, but lets be serious: Robert Goulet would be as out of place in Dreamgirls as he would be in, say, La Cage....

Sorry couldn't resist.

[NCGuy]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:31pm

No, no, no MichaelBennet, Effie was played by Irlene, the “untalented” Mandrell Sister who only played four instruments (to Barbara and Louise’s seven and eight instruments). After being pushed aside for Barbara, Irlene overcomes her addiction to Banana Red MadDog and rises to glory in the second act as a Hee-Haw Hunney.

[baddadnpa]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:31pm

He would be a better Elphaba in the sit down Chicago run of Wicked.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:36pm

Joekv99? I think Robert Goulet is rather obvious and reasonably inspired casting for La Cage.

Based on "where" they list DREAMGIRLS in Mr. Goulet's bio, near the very beginning, I suspect there was another property, a number of decades before the Michael Bennett musical, entitled DREAMGIRLS or DREAMGIRL in which Goulet appeared likely in the 1950s. I've tried to search and find out but I can't ascertain the source of Mr. Goulet's DREAMGIRLS credit.

WOSQ-- It is simply untrue that Mr. Goulet stoodby for the part of Deena in the original Broadway production of DREAMGIRLS. At the time of DREAMGIRLS, it was common knowledge that Robert Goulet was the standby for Nell Carter in the national tour of AIN'T MISBEHAVIN.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:39pm

Has anyone here heard the recording of the workshop of DREAMGIRLS when it was called ONE NIGHT ONLY and starred Nell Carter as Effie? She was one smokin Mama!

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:41pm

It's in his official bio.

http://www.robertgoulet.com/Biography/biographyrobert.html

[morosco]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:43pm

Dang! It sure is listed in his bio. Maybe he did a cameo as Dave (Dave and The Sweethearts) is a concert version somewhere? Actually, that would have been very funny. Or maybe it's another property all together. Just goes to show ya that broadwayworld.com is correct!
Updated On: 3/30/05 at 02:43 PM

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 2:50pm

Does singing it on The Lawrence Welk Show count as performing in it? I believe Lawrence was Effie (accordian and all), Robert was Deena, and Norma Zimmer was Lorrell.

Updated On: 3/30/05 at 02:50 PM

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 3:00pm

we know DREAMGIRLS is in Goulet's official bio. However, bios OFTEN have errors. As I previously posted, you will notice it is at the beginning credits in his bio. There was likely another "work" with the title of DREAMGIRLS in the 1950s or so.

Michael Bennett, Nell Carter was magnificent. We saw her in a rather small venue just a few years before her death. It was a tiny, local concert, that she said was done on behalf of record producer Richard Jay Alexander whom Ms. Carter introduced to the audience. More than once during the concert Mr. Alexander yelled to her from the audience "I am Loving You." Obviously, no recording deal emerged from that "happening."
In addition to the AIN'T MISBEHAVIN recording, and the soundtrack of the film HAIR, the only other cd of her's I own and I believe Nell Carter ever did, was a live in concert performance with the San Francisco Gay Mens' Chorus. It is an excellent cd and is entitled something like Nell Carter Ain't Misbehavin with the San Francisco Gay Mens' Chorus. You would love it. :)

[Jon]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 4:57pm

Wellm there was a non-musical play called DREAM GIRL by Elmer Rice, which was made into the flop musical SKYSCRAPER, starring Julie Harris, Peter Marshall and Charles Nelson Reilley.

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 8:19pm

Yea, wasn't it in the all white version? I think they tried to do the same thing with Flower Drum Song.






Just joshing

[wildcat]

Posted: 3/30/05 at 10:57pm

Nell Carter can also be heard on at least one of Ben Bagley's Painted Smiles compilations, EVERYONE ELSE REVISITED. Check out the Painted Smiles website. I've been a fan since she came to Australia with DON'T BOTHER ME-I CAN'T COPE in the early '70s.

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 2:59pm

wildcat, I saw DON'T BOTHER ME I CAN'T COPE in its original Broadway stint, when it starred its composer, Micki Grant. It was a hoot! I had known Micki Grant best up until that point for playing the part of Peggy, a secretary, on the soap opera ANOTHER WORLD. I vividly remember her singing the song (I believe they used it in a tv commercial too) "It takes A Whole Lot Of Human Feeling To Be A Human Being." The title song of the show was staged and performed delightfully also.

(were all fictional secretaries of the 1960s and 1970s required to have the name Peggy? hmmm)

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 3:01pm

JON, I suspect you have solved the mystery. I would gather that Mr. Goulet was in a production of the play DREAM GIRL and someone made an error in his bio, which happens very, very frequently.

[Gothampc]

Posted: 3/31/05 at 3:11pm

Playbill has this in his bio:

"For the audiences who could not come to Broadway, he brought Broadway to them. Thus, in 1986 he was the pioneer who launched Broadway national tours, which have since become big busniess."

Is he really credited as the person who created Broadway national tours?

http://www.playbill.com/celebritybuzz/whoswho/biography/2538.html

Updated On: 3/31/05 at 03:11 PM

[WISHIHADATONY]

Posted: 4/1/05 at 4:07pm

Gothampc, obviously Mr. Goulet did not create national tours in 1986.
Mary Martin received a special Tony award in 1948 for doing a national tour of ANNIE GET YOUR GUN.(You can see this yourself by going to www.tonyawards.com and searching "past winners and nominees"--enter the name Mary Martin and Search--and you will see she was awarded a special Tony for doing a national tour) National tours have been around loooooong before 1986.

PLAYBILL bios are often full of fluff, exaggerations and made up items. Sometimes with input from the performer, sometimes just a creative writer doing that job for the show. They are not to be taken as Hard Fact.

Streisand's Funny Girl bio said something like she was raised by Gypsies in Madagascar and escaped on a riverboat...........Bernadette Peter's bio for years said she played Dainty June in the first national tour of GYPSY (she has said in recent concert tours that her mother made her exaggerate her first role in GYPSY. She was one of the Hollywood blondes, but her mother thought saying she played Dainty June was more impressive and that no one would notice. Bernadette's mother was right, at the time, of course.)

When a performer submits "their bio" for inclusion in PLAYBILL there is no formal investigative body or even fact checking process that is gone through. Take playbill bios with a grain of salt and perhaps a bit of pepper:)
P.S. -- I have cut the Mary Martin info from the Tony award site and am pasting it here:-----

Mary Martin-
1948 Spreading Theatre To The Country While The Originals Perform In New York Winners - Mary Martin (Annie Get Your Gun)
and Joe E. Brown (Harvey)

1950 Actress (Musical) Winner - Mary Martin (South Pacific)

1955 Actress (Musical) Winner - Mary Martin (Peter Pan)

1960 Actress (Musical) Winner - Mary Martin (The Sound of Music)

1967 Actress (Musical) Nominees: Mary Martin (I Do! I Do!)

Updated On: 4/1/05 at 04:07 PM